CNY 2015: Qing Zhen Chinese Restaurant, Novotel Kuala Lumpur

Usher in the Year of the Wooden Goat with one of three delightful Chinese New Year menus on offer at Qing Zhen Chinese Restaurant at Novotel KL. Available from 19 January to 7 March 2015, you can choose from Wisdom Set Menu (RM1088++ for 10 pax), Fortune Set Menu (RM1288++ for 10 pax, and Prosperity Set Menu (RM1888++). If you are dining in a smaller group, fret not as Qing Zhen also offers a smaller menu for a minimum of 6 pax. Full CNY menu can be viewed here.

CNY Decor at Qing Zhen

We had the pleasure of dining at Qing Zhen during our staycation here last year and last week, we were invited back here to sample their CNY menu.

Yee sang is always my favorite part of a CNY meal. Over here, you can choose to have smoked duck, lamb & salmon or smoked salmon & abalone yee sang. We had the latter, which is also part of the Prosperity Set Menu. Tossing yee sang is always fun, as we shout out auspicious wishes for the new year such as good health, more money, winning the lottery, etc.

Smoked salmon and abalone yee sang

Topped with salmon and abalone

Ready for the toss

First yee sang toss of the year! Yay. ;)

Next to arrive is the braised seafood soup, filled with treasures of the sea such as fish lips, sea cucumber, dried scallops, fish maw and crab meat as well as mushrooms. Although Qing Zhen is a pork-free restaurant, their dishes will not lose in the taste and flavour department  even when compared to a restaurant serving pork. Each mouthful of the soup is smooth and soothing to the tummy, all of us had second helpings and some even up to 4 bowls! Excellent soup.

The prettiest, and my favorite dish of the afternoon is the steamed Pacific cod fish. Each piece of cod is topped with a large pan seared sea scallop with green ginger sauce. Utterly delicious! And lucky me for getting two portions of this ;)

The wok fried king prawns boasts huge, fresh prawns which are deep fried until the skin crispy, while retaining the taut, juicy flesh within. It is served with wolf berry, red dates and a sauce made from dried Chinese yam "Wai San" style.

Lamb is not something you always see on Chinese menus, and this wok fried lamb loin was certainly a breath of fresh air. Furthermore with this CNY being the year of the goat/lamb. We were really impressed with the tender, flavorful lamb meat which is coated in aromatic premium coffee sauce. Assistant Chinese Chef, Jerry Kong explains to us that he uses lamb tenderloin and we also expressed how we liked that the dish did not display a strong lamby taste. The lamb was delicious eaten on its own or wrapped with the flower bun and lettuce.

A well-loved dish during the CNY period, the braised Mexican abalone, mushroom, sea cucumber and dried oyster with scented abalone sauce was delicious. Discerning, health-conscious diners will be happy to learn that Qing Zhen's menu is pretty low in sodium, but without comprising on the taste as all the dishes were very well-flavoured and tasty. 

The steamed aromatic buttered rice in lotus leaf got the approval of my fellow diners, and they were impressed that such a delicious version could be made without any pork. Chef Jerry uses dried mushrooms, waxed meat (duck) as well as his own-made chicken char siew for this. Furthermore, rice instead of glutinous rice is used for a lighter, healthier version.

To end our meal on a sweet note, we had Chinese New Year cake, also known as nian gao. The nian gao is coated in a light, thin batter and deep fried until the skin is crispy and the nian gao is warm and gooey.

Thanks to Novotel KL for having us, we thoroughly enjoyed the meal! :)



The Chinese New Year menus are available for both lunch and dinner from 19 January to 7 March 2015. However please note that the restaurant will be closed from 19-22 February 2015. For reservations or enquiries, email H6324-FB3@accor.com or call 03-2147 0888.

Pork-free.

Opening hours: Mondays to Saturdays - Lunch: 12.00pm – 2.30 pm; Dinner: 6.30pm – 10.00pm. Closed on Sunday.

Location: Qing Zhen Chinese Restaurant, Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 2 Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2147 0888

GPS Coordinates: 3.151861, 101.719673




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Top 8 Recipes for a Brilliant Sunday Roast

It's the first Sunday of 2015 and there's no better way to spend it than with my favorite Sunday tradition - Sunday Roast. A typical Sunday roast consists of roasted meat, roast potato, vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire pudding.

Here are 8 of my favorite recipes for a brilliant Sunday Roast.

1. Roast Beef

My favorite cut to use when making roast beef is rib eye. Tender and succulent, the whole family loves it.

I usually cook my roast beef to medium rare - the cooking time is 5 mins per 100g at 180°C. Allow to rest for at least 15-20 minutes before carving.

For roast beef recipe, see here.

2. Roast lamb

Roast leg of lamb is great if you're feeding a large family. This Heston Blumenthal-inspired recipe is my favorite - simply slow roasted at 90°C for about 2 hours. 

See recipe here.

3. Roast lamb loin chops

Baby C's favorite lamb cut is the lamb loin chops. This is much more quicker to cook compared to the whole leg of lamb (20 mins vs 2 hours). 

See recipe here.

4. Roast chicken

This is a simple roast chicken recipe from Michelin-star chef Thomas Keller. You only need 4 basic ingredients for this recipe - unsalted butter, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Moist chicken with incredibly crispy skin.

See recipe here.

5. Roast potatoes

A must-have with every Sunday Roast is roast potatoes. Crisp on the outisde, fluffy on the inside - delicious!

See recipe here.

6. Yorkshire puddings

We like having Yorkshire puddings with roast beef. They're really easy to make (less than 20 mins for prep and cooking). I love them crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and with lots of gravy poured over.

See the recipe here. 

7. Homemade mint sauce

A good mint sauce is essential when serving roast lamb. I prefer making my own using fresh mint from the garden - so very easy to do. 

See recipe here.

8. Vegetables

We like to keep it simple and have our Sunday roast with steamed or boiled vegetables. Two of my favorites are Brussel sprouts and carrots.

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Maruhi Sakaba, Faber Plaza, Taman Desa, KL

On a night out with my girl friends, we visited Maruhi Sakaba in Taman Desa. Maruhi Sakaba is one of the Japanese outlets owned by Seiji Fujimoto (of Sanuki Udon, Japanese BBQ and Lao Jiu Lou). This outlet specialises in kushiyaki / yakitori, skewers of grilled goodness. 

Maruhi Sakaba is located at Faber Plaza (look for Public Bank and it's a couple of doors down). Find this Chinese signboard and you're at the right place.

The restaurant is pretty big and can accommodate many tables. We ordered their signature cocktail called "Maruhi Sour" (RM45) which was served in a kettle. A mix of shochu, Angostura bitters, lime & soda water. One pot lasted us the whole evening.

The menu is a one-pager, consisting of chicken kushi, pork kushi, vegetable kushi, appetizer & rice as well as drinks. They also have a specials menu near the kitchen such as ramen, pork liver sashimi etc.

We just ordered lots of random items from the menu and to our delight, almost everything was really tasty. The meats were well-marinated and tasty, and they also serve two types of delicious dips to go with the meat. Our favorite of the evening was the pork belly (RM4 per skewer) as the meat was grilled til it was melt-in-the mouth, we kept ordering more of this.

The lamb skewers (RM5), chicken wings (RM5) and pig tongue (RM4) were also good. The only item which we didn't like that much was the chicken skin in mustard sauce (RM5) - not much taste and the texture is a bit weird for us.

Edamame (RM3), to fill our veggie quota

Tofu (RM5)

Chicken skin in mustard sauce (RM5)

Okra...aiyo so skinny!(RM3)

Eggplant (RM3)

A highly recommended dish here is the organ meat stew (RM10), a hearty comforting stew with pig's intestine. We all enjoyed this. 

Lost count of how many kushiyaki we had

Chicken wings and pork belly

We had a great meal here - the food is tasty, reasonably priced, and service is fast and good.


Opening times: 6pm-10.30pm daily. Closed on Mondays.

Price: Total bill RM150.

Location: Maruhi Sakaba, No. 6A Faber Plaza, Jalan Desa Jaya, Taman Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur. (closest landmark is Public Bank)

GPS Coordinates: 3.102737, 101.682849




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Sunday Curry Tiffin Lunch @ Colonial Cafe, The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur

Tiffin is an English slang term for second breakfast or lunch. It is believed that tiffin originated from India back in 1800s, whereby the British in India would generally indulge in a light lunch, often a curry. The Sunday Tiffin, however, was seen as an occasion to over-indulge, usually consisting of a feast of mulligatawny soup, mixed curries, vegetables and rice.

Sunday Curry Tiffin at The Majestic Hotel KL

The old Hotel Majestic hotel became the favoured venue for the colonial elite to indulge in their signature dish, the traditional Sunday Curry Tiffin lunch.

Colonial Cafe is proud to revive the colonial tradition and relive the halcyon days of the planters of Malaya with the Sunday Curry Tiffin Lunch. It is priced at RM78++ per person and served every Sunday from 12.00pm to 2.00pm. 

Colonial Cafe in The Majestic Hotel KL

The indulgent lunch includes main items such as Hainanese Chicken Curry, Mutton Varuval, Egg Masala and Fried Fish Masala which are served in a tiffin carrier (a very elegant one, nonetheless). First, a banana leaf is laid on our plates, then our server spoons a wide selection of accompaniments such as mango chutney, pineapple chunks, fish puttu, salted egg, marinated cucumbers, toasted coconut, peanuts and banana slices onto our plates. A shot of salted lassi is also served to perk up our palates.

Rice and accompaniments are refillable, so you can add-on these items as often as you like. The main items are served in generous portions, especially the Hainanese chicken curry (at least 2-3 pieces per person). The curry is really delicious and not too spicy, so even the kids spooned lots of this onto their rice. The kids really loved the Fried Fish Masala - the fish used is mackarel, very fresh and well flavoured with spices. I don't take mackarel, so instead I loaded my plate with lots of mutton (yum yum!) and egg masala. The deep fried bittergourd is also very nice and crispy.

On top of great food and relaxed, comfortable ambiance, diners can also expect fantastic entertainment in the form of Ms. Isabella Soliano who sings and plays the piano. Class act.

The meal ends with a serving of Sago Gula Melaka and Masala Tea. Rich, sweet and indulgent. This is indeed a great way to spend our Sunday.

The kiddos :)

The Orchid Conservatory - my favorite room in the hotel. 

Thanks to Nigel from The Majestic Hotel KL for the kind invite to sample this delicious Sunday Curry Tiffin Lunch.

The Sunday Curry Tiffin Lunch is available every Sunday from 12.00pm to 2.00pm and is priced at RM78++ per person/set. For more information and reservations, please call +603 2785 8000.



Location: Colonial Café, Majestic Wing, The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur, 5 Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2785 8000

Website: http://www.majestickl.com/

GPS Coordinates: 3.139059, 101.692617


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Simply d, Avenue K, Kuala Lumpur

Over the weekend, we visited Simply d's 3rd and latest outlet in Avenue K shopping mall. Simply d is part of The Delicious Group; a fast-casual cafe/restaurant offering an array of Western and Asian infused pasta, salads, sandwiches and more. They have 2 other outlets in Nu Sentral and The Curve.

The great thing about the menu here is that you can mix-and-match the style and type of noodles you want. For example, you can order the carbonara with linguine, fusilli or even yellow mee (if that's what you like!).

Other styles of noodle/pasta styles available here are: dry tossed sambal, salted egg pumpkin, beef short ribs herbal soup, laksa, Vietnamese salmon pho, teriyaki salmon, creamy seafood marinara, chilli chicken "pastamee", sweet basil & cashewnut pesto, and roasted garlic & sundried tomato aglio olio. These styles can be matched with these types of noodles: linguine, angel hair, fusilli, spaghettini, soba noodles, flat white noodles and yellow mee.

Simply d's menu

The kids chose to have the sweet basil and cashew nut pesto with spaghettini along with the option of adding grilled lamb kofta (RM15). Service is fast here. Great choice by the kids, they really enjoyed the pesto pasta here - Baby D took a couple of mouthfuls and exclaimed "Deeeeeee-licious!". 

The boy who loves pesto 

We also tried the fusilli salted egg pumpkin plus a tea egg for RM13.50. Really like the creamy pumpkin, but would love more salted egg yolk in mine. The tea egg is beautifully runny, could eat two of these!

We also ordered a 100% beef burger (RM13) with coleslaw and tapioca chips. Nice juicy burger and so reasonably priced too. My Hubby would definitely enjoy this.

For desserts, there is a selection of cakes and ice creams. I highly recommend the coconut and pandan cake (RM8) - it's fluffy, soft and luscious. One of the best cakes we've eaten this year. My kids loved it a lot, they finished the slice between them (I only managed a sneaky mouthful). Definitely returning for this. Kids also tried a slice of chocolate and hazelnut brownie (RM9) which was rich and sinful. No problems finishing that too!

Chocolate and hazelnut brownie

By the way, Simply d is also currently running a Instagram contest called #snapmycup. Follow them on Instagram @simplydcafe for more details - but basically you just need to ask for a cup, snap some photos and you'll be in the running to win one of their cool stools. Oh and every participant gets a free coffee.

Simply d at Avenue K

Walked over to the Twin Towers for some photos :)

30% off on total bill from now until 17 Sept at Avenue K and The Curve outlets.


Opening times: 8am to 10pm daily.

Location: Simply d, Avenue K, Concourse Level, Lot C-16A156, Jalan Ampang, 50450, Kuala Lumpur. (beside H&M Men Department)

Tel: 03 2181 7995

Website: https://www.facebook.com/simplyd.my


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